


Gordie Meow

by madameofmusic



Series: 34 Days [4]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: 34 Days Challenge, Cat ensemble, Fluff, M/M, Tumblr Prompts, Unbeta'd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-15 23:07:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7242520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madameofmusic/pseuds/madameofmusic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kent's cats are allergic to Jack. This isn't even the most ridiculous thing Jack's had to deal with.</p>
<p>(For Week 4 of the 34 Days Challenge: Future/Post-Canon)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gordie Meow

**Author's Note:**

> From [x](http://whiskeytangofrogman.tumblr.com/post/116426787848/ridiculous-sentence-prompts)
> 
> "Please stop petting the test subjects”

“There's been an emergency.” Jack pales, and looks at the phone in his hand.

“What do you mean _emergency_?” Jack says, knuckles white on to where he's gripped the table. “Kent, what happened?”

Kent whistles low. “Okay, I lied. Not an _emergency-_ emergency, per se. I'm fine. No hospitals. I just…” Kent curses low in the background. “Can't make it tonight.”

Jack frowns. “Okay.” He hangs up the phone, and stares across the table at the empty chair.

They'd been talking about this for weeks, celebrating Kent's trade to Providence, them being on the same line once again, _properly_ , by themselves, at the nicest restaurant in Providence, and Kent had just called to cancel because of an “emergency”.

Half of Jack was pissed, and the other half worried. Kent had been more excited about tonight than Jack had been himself.

Jack resolved that whatever emergency Kent was going through, well, he'd just have to go through it with Jack there. Because he was going over to Kent's. It wasn't that he didn't trust his… boyfriend, partner, _whatever_ they were, it was just that Kent was bull-headed and prone to hiding himself in times of crisis and acting like everything was more alright than it actually was. It was what had kept them apart after Jack’s overdose, and all the way through his Samwell years.

That, though, wasn't something he wanted to think about right then.

Jack arrives at Kent’s apartment seven and half minutes later, thanking whoever is listening that he didn't run into any cops with the way he was speeding. He books up the three flights up stairs, and knocks on Kent’s door, still heaving for air.

Kent answers in a lab coat, splash goggles looped around his neck, and a confused look on his face. “Jack?” He opens the door, and lets Jack through. “What are you doing here?”

Jack steps through, and clicks the door shut behind him. “You said there was an emergency. I'm here because…” He trails off, and then shrugs, looking Kent over. He wants desperately to ask about the goggles and the lab coat, but he’s not sure he wants the answer.

Kent frowns. “Because what?”

Jack shoves his hands in his pockets, and gives Kent a little self-depreciating smile. “I was worried about you. You were too excited about this restaurant and about tonight to let anything less than a catastrophe come between it.”

Kent snorts, and grins at Jack. “A catastrophe is one way to put it,” he says, putting a strange emphasis on the word “catastrophe”, and Jack doesn’t know why. He steps away from the door, and leads Jack to his kitchen. Inside, every surface is covered in plastic painters tarp, and Kent's cats are strapped into high chairs. Where Kent got three high chairs, Jack has no idea, but he admires the tenacity Kent had to have to get them strapped in properly.

“They're allergic to something, and I can't figure out what. I was worried because, you know.” Kent gestures to the cats. Jack does know, though, even if Kent didn't finish what he was saying. Kent's cats are important to him, just like Samwell was important to Jack. Different coping mechanisms, same idea.

Jack shares a look with Gordie Meow, and then looks back at Kent. “How can I help?” He asks, stepping closer to Pad Paw Zimmermann (oh, how Jack had tried to talk him out of that one), and scratches his fingers across the cat’s head, eliciting a deep purr.

Kent slaps his hand away. “You can start by not doing that,” Kent says, and then follows up with. “Please stop petting the test subjects.”

This, for some reason, makes Jack lose it. Suddenly, his head is in his hands, shoulders shaking from the force of his laughter. “Test subjects?” He chokes out, settling on Kent's face, a manic grin plastered across his own.

Kent sniffs, haughty. “Yes. It's a very scientific process Jack.” Kent picks up a clipboard, and scans over the piece of paper clipped onto it. Kent’s loopy handwriting covers the page, and Jack leans closer to read it.

It’s a mess of half sentences, scrawled next to a neatly boxed chart with “Gordie Meow”, “Kit Purrson” and “Pad Paw Zimmermann” titling the columns. Down the side, Kent’s written various things, and then put check marks, question marks, and Xs in the boxes. It’s surprisingly organised.

“I’ve narrowed it down to their wet food, and the couch.” Kent says, setting the clipboard down and picking up a can of cat food with a spoon sticking out of it.

While Kent tries to spoon-feed the Maine Coon (who wants no part of her owners nonsense), Jack focuses on his favourite. Pad Paw Zimmermann (Kent’s worst pun yet, and only done out of spite) is an old tabby. He’s blind in one eye, and prickly as hell, and only likes Jack.

Kent had tried to tell Jack that if he liked the cat so much, Jack should just keep him at his own apartment. Jack had claimed he couldn’t have pets (though it was more that he enjoyed seeing Kent frustrated trying to deal with Pad), and Kent had relented and brought him back.

( _“One more cat and you’ll be a certifiable cat lady, Parse” “Shut up Zimmermann”)_

Pad sneezes, bringing Jack out of his memories. He glares up at Jack, and sneezes again.

“Hey, Kent-” Jack says, trying to get Kent’s attention. But Kent’s already looking at him, eyes flicking between Pad and Jack, a sudden dawn of understanding coming over his features, closely followed by the most mournful expression Jack's ever seen outside of a funeral.

“Jack,” Kent says.

“Kent,” Jack says back, raising an eyebrow.

“Jack, I think I know what they're allergic to.”

Jack's other eyebrow raises to match, curious, and more than a little amused. “What's that?”

_“You.”_ Kent says with such emphasis that is almost surprises Jack. Kent could have been an actor on a daytime soap opera if hockey hadn't worked out.

Jack is overcome with another bout of laughter, and he continues to laugh even as Kent shoves him out of the apartment and outside once more.

“Kent, please-” he says, still laughing helplessly.

“Jack, I'm sorry. I just need you to be gone for a little bit so I can make sure it's you and not something else. I'm sorry, I love you!” Kent shuts the door, and Jack can't even be that mad, because the entire situation is ridiculous. And also, because he’s pretty sure that was the first time Kent said “I love you” first, and the man didn’t even realise he was saying it.

He drives himself back home, and is endlessly amused for the three days it takes Kent to call him and tell him that actually, his cats weren't allergic to Jack, but their fancy cat food that costed nearly five dollars an ounce, and smelled like rotten fish and eggs anyway, so maybe Jack could come over and hang out?

Kent promises him an apology dinner and history movie marathon for missing their date, as if Jack needed any more incentive to hang around with Kent instead of in his own apartment watching tape and giggling to himself about the Catastrophe.

Jack lets himself back into Kent's apartment a few hours after the call, and bends down to pet Gordie when the cat brushes up against him. He accepts the nudges he gets in return for scritches, and sends a silent prayer to whoever’s listening for these damn cats.

They've done far more for Kent than Jack could ever hope for. He's grateful, to say the least.

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT 6/19/2016: There were some grammar/flow/clarity errors, as well as missing chunks I forgot to add, so that's there now. Thanks to everyone who read and enjoyed this pre-edit, and everyone who does after! 
> 
> I definitely have schemes for the rest of these prompts on the list, so those might get sometime soon. 
> 
> Come bug me at [my tumblr](whiskeytangofrogman.tumblr.com)


End file.
